Penultimate Clean-up Chores

One of the penultimate clean-up chores was to remove things from the kitchen drawers, dresser drawers, & shelves that Ken will be working on as well as all the items stored under the butsudan. And also putting up signs for Ken.

 

I thought this was nailed in but it was just set on top.

Almost ready for Ken.

I also had to fold all the laundry I did over the last few days & put them away where they belong.

Before.

After. I got sidetracked & didn't get back to it until much later.

Some of the regular things I do at the end of every visit include replenishing the Damp Rid crystals as needed, treating the cesspool with Rid-X, & covering everything back up. Some of the things did not get covered the last time. Another normal penultimate day task is washing my sheets & any clothes that I used that are to remain at the house; I did that this morning. Back in July I threw the dirty laundry in my suitcase & washed them back in Kaimukī! One of the reasons there is a new washer & clothesline here is so I do not need to haul dirty laundry back with me.

I was awake before birdrise; I had a terrible night. Every time I moved my back would hurt. So I would do stretching exercises since I was awake anyway. That's how I noticed the full moon again. And also why I was up before the Saffron Finch & waiting for it to start singing. 

Moon at 4:58 a.m.

Birdrise at 5:46 a.m., 19 minutes before sunrise.

Wake up 5 minutes after sunrise.

I had the final 1/4 of the dragon fruit for breakfast this morning. I hope Jessie or the Ohtas come by & harvest the 4 green ones when they are ready for eating.  

The real name of the "bowl shop" where Virgil is at is the L. Zeidman Gallery; it features his father Larry's wood working craft. Virgil is running the shop while Larry & his wife are safely quarantining in New Zealand where Larry's wife is from. Virgil realized Sarah had some mental health issues & was being supportive, but Sarah took it too far coming by multiple days in a row & monopolizing the time of staff while she stayed for way too long each time. I told him that last day when he called & left a message with Evan, it helped us find her so we could get her to the airport on time. If you are able to, please help support the gallery.

Larry also has a few non-bowl pieces.

This was just to the right of the doorway to the gallery. It seems like this might be something they might want to replace; there are a lot of older tourists that walk around in this area.

There were 4 of us for chips & salsa lunch at HWC today; Dr. Juan & Shelby were off picking up fish & releasing a juvenile Wedge-tailed Shearwater & Oliver is now in school. I had a bunch of time to look around the staff work area.

I had not noticed this earlier.

Beside chips & salsa, we also had flourless chocolate cake that Heidi had made for Oliver's birthday which was yesterday. I also found out that the middle school uses their parking lot as the evacuation point for the school; while I was there they received a phone call about rescheduling an evacuation practice.

The main course.

Dessert!

With real whipped cream!

Because I had to pass right by the Hawai'i Island Retreat on my way home, I stopped in to thank Jeanne for all she did for Sarah in July. I don't think we would have been as successful in keeping Sarah as safe as she was or convincing her to get on the plane & return home as we were able to do, without Jeanne's help. If you are able to, please give them some of your business; they take private individual bookings as well as retreats.  

The road down to the retreat center.

When I got home I set the carriers in the hallway; I only have 2 this time since they did not have more small carriers. The carriers are a visual reminder that I still have to pack my suitcase. I put the carriers in my suitcase 1st, then pack things in & around them.

I had signed up for the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association's Zoom class Wahi Pana ʻO Waikīkī Pt.1 last week. When I got home & got on my laptop I got the reminder that it had already started! Auē! I was only able to catch the last 20 minutes or so.

Here's the reminder I got in the morning.

Some of the places Uncle Joe talked about.

Uncle Joe did walking tours of Wailīkī pre-COVID.

Before dinner I spent a bunch of time organizing the freezer & making a list of what was in there, how much, & how old things were. Because Sarah buys things when she is in a manic state (& she does not listen when you tell her you already have something) I now have 2&1/2 pounds of purchased  raw macadamia nuts in the freezer; not to mention I also have a very productive macadamia tree! Auē!   

Before.

After.

What's this?

I have no idea who bought this & when it arrived. It's in the freezer now.

While I was working on the freezer I heard a noise at the back door. When I looked over I saw that a Common Myna had squeezed in through the small gap under the window. This one was smarter than the Zebra Dove that did the same thing last year; it easily flew out through the garage opening rather than heading to the window on the opposite side of the garage & getting stuck there for a few minutes.

Common Myna perched on wasp spray.

For dinner I made a peanut butter & Tahitian lime ginger jam sandwich; I was trying to use up the couple pieces of Ezekial Bread I found in the freezer. I also had a bag of Whisps cheese snacks; those were in the fridge in a large bag so I was able to get rid of that large bag. For dessert I ate the last of the ice cream that Kaia & I made in May.

It is no longer occupying space in the freezer.

Later in the evening I started putting up the signs for Ken. These are the cabinetry projects that he will be working on while I am gone. I hope he has them done by the time I move back in January 2022.

After dinner, I also checked in for my flight tomorrow. It still looks like I will have no other passengers around me on the flight.

Still looking physically-distanced.

This is Day 3 & the maiʻa seems to be just a slight bit lighter green.

I saw Mom Cat as I was leaving to go to HWC; she was sunning herself by Jessie's gas tank. I wasn't quite sure it was her but when I checked later she had moved so it was really obvious that it had been her. 

Mom Cat is bright white spot under tank just to right of clothesline pole.

I got an email from IHOP letting me know that today is National Waffle Day! I really like their unsubscribe message.

Here's an enlarged version.

The Aix weather app forecast rain until mid afternoon here, with partly cloudy skies after that; it was mainly partly cloudy skies. Honomū, however, had 0.40 inches of rain by about 8:30 this morning. Aix forecast much of the same for Honolulu; but the traffic cams showed dry roadways. Aix forecast partly cloudy skies for Marysville but their skies looked very clear in both screen grabs I got from the traffic cams.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 8:29 a.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 8:29 .m.m

Marysville looking northerly at 8:29 a.m. HST.

Kapaʻau looking northeasterly at 8:32 a.m.

Kaimukī looking westerly at 3:28 p.m.

Honomū looking northerly at 3:28 p.m.

Marysville looking northerly at 3:28 p.m. HST.

 

Surf was low on all shorlines, all day..

South shore, Waikīkī at 8:30 a.m.

South shore, Waikīkī at 3:31 p.m.

 

Kīlauea started showing some earthquake activity late yesterday. But it is not erupting. Yet. Here is what it looked like today. Both of the USGS photos shown below are taken from the west rim of the crater. The video below gives great information about what is going on; it is about 37 minutes long but worth watching if you want to find out more. If an eruption does start, I will post information such as I had before.

 

 

The FDA's full approval of the Pfizer vaccine is expected to increase the number of people here being vaccinated. The state as well as many private businesses has been waiting for full approval in order to mandate vaccination (or regular testing for those with approved medical or religious exemptions) for all employees.  

Here's a great opinion piece by a doctor on reasons people between 13 & 60 years old should consider getting vaccinated. I agree with him; I am talking to more younger people than I did last year & about 3/4 of the people I am able to reach are unvaccinated. (The number of vaccinated might look high but those talking to us have self-selected to talk to us, I think perhaps other unvaccinated people have chosen to ignore our calls.)

While reading an article about unvaccinated City & County of Honolulu employees on my phone this morning, I noticed that one could apply for a "medieval exemption". So if you win your weekly jousting match you don't need to get vaccinated? (Unfortunately they corrected the typo between the time I took a screen shot on my phone early this morning &  when this piece was posted.) 

Oh, oh. Deja vu all over again. A cruise ship passenger recently died of COVID-19. Although some cruise lovers say they feel safer on a cruise, to me it just looks like a giant petri dish, incubating scores of future infected people. 

There were 565 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases to 57,235. There was also another death reported today, increasing the death toll to 565; currently there are 9520 cases considered active. As of yesterday 1,833,678 doses of vaccine have been administered, making 62.1% of the population fully vaccinated; about 70.4% of the population has had at least 1 dose. The 7-day new case average for Oʻahu is 450 with a positivity rate of 9.7%.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Redwolf! A me ka Hau'oli lā Hānau inehinei e Oliver!